So you've got your web site ready to go, the tabs to all the site sections are all lined up and working perfectly, and then you get a call from the Web site designer or the graphics person, saying the design of the tab graphics has changed, the highlighted tab color has changed, etc. Back to the drawing board? No! Here's an easy way to set the tabs up which provides a quick and easy way to implement changes.

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I am assuming two sets of tabs, one set being the tab "highlight" color, which would be used when a person is viewing or editing a document in that tab's section of the site, and the other set being a "non-highlight" color.

First, on the form or forms in your database which will display the site tabs, create a field called PageType. Make it a drop-down field which contains all the page types in the site, i.e. each of the tab names plus any other page type names your site might contain but for which there is no tab, like Contact Us, Search, Site Map, etc.

Create a subform in your database called NavTabs. On this subform, create one Computed for Display Text field for each site tab. Call them something generic like "Tab1", "Tab2", "Tab3", etc.

You're first finding out the page type of the current document. In the example, we're finding out whether or not the current page has a page type of "Research." If so, when the Research tab is clicked, it will open the document in the database called "research," which would be the home page of the Research section of the site.

Also, if this document has a page type of "Research," the Tab field will pull in the highlight-colored version of the tab graphic for that section. If the document has a page type other than "Research," the non-highlight-colored version of the tab graphic will be pulled in.

You'd then pull this subform into the top of all the forms in your database which need to display site tabs.

Once these formulas and fields are in place, if the tab graphics change in any way, all you'll have to do is name them res_hi.gif and res_dk.gif and replace the current res_ files in the image resources with the new files. No re-coding necessary!

Here's how to highlight the current document in an Web menu. In Web applications we often use menus that may include the current document in the list. It could be a tabbed dialog, a horizontal menu or a left menu. With a little help of CSS and @Formula you can make the display of the current site automatic.

First create a stylesheet (CSS) like the following (in R6 you can attach it into a stylesheet resource; in R5 you create a page that is marked as "Treat as HTML").

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